Posts under ‘New Zealand’

Good Luck Whooping Crane Beer is a special brew which can be found at the Good Luck Bar in Cuba Street Wellington. It’s quite a nice drop with a distinct Japanese Lager flavour and served at very affordable prices. Now the deal is, if you drink this lovely beer you will be showered in Good Luck, well we certainly didn’t find any bad luck after drinking it..so it must have worked.  The Good Luck bar has been running for about 9 years and as well as their Whooping Crane Beer they are also known for their Harry Debu Gaki Sake and their interesting cocktails. It’s a nice little bar to visit with some pretty funky sounds for anyone in Wellington’s main entertainment district looking for something a bit unique.

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Tuatara Pilsner is brewed by Tuatara Brewery from Paraparaumu which is just under an hour’s drive north of Wellington along the west coast of the North Island.  Tuatara is a growing microbrewery which is has been awarded some fairly prestigious prizes for its beer.  Using the best German traditions the brewery produces five main beers in the classic European style. One of the ones we were lucky enough to try was the pilsner which was sold in draft form and very fresh and crisp.  The beer a Czech style pilsner has an alcohol content of 5% and is the brewery’s bestselling. The beer is brewed with noble Saaz hops, German Malt and Czech yeast plus some of New Zealand’s softest and purest water making it a very delicious drop indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

This beer is a treat, and as the New Zealander’s would say awesome!- it’s a slice of heaven!. Monteith’s have made a very tasty beer here with their Celtic Red, it’s got some very nice chocolaty tastes, a bit malty a hint of smoke. There is a bit of a dry taste but there is an element of sweetness to the 4.4% alcohol content beer. The beer is in the style of a Irish Ale and as you can see by the photo has a very distinctive rich red colour and fairly frothy head.   The beer is brewed using traditional ale fermentation techniques which help give the rich and smooth flavours.  Monteiths originated from the west coast of the South Island near Greymouth over 150 years ago. Now owned by DB Breweries they still brew using traditional techniques and make a very tasty range of products which even include some tasty ciders.

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Overlooking Auckland’s waterfront in the city’s port district is a great brew bar for anyone visiting New Zealand’s biggest city. The bar is pretty cool, it is built in, as the name suggest the old building once home to The Northern Steamship Co. It’s been totally refurbished and designed by some very clever designers who have turned it into a very funky beer palace.  Before we get to the beers we need to talk about the space, it’s amazing, there are floor lamps hanging from the ceiling, some incredible artwork including a huge piece behind the bar broken up into dozens of random photo frames, book cases full of cool stuff and some really funky furnishings.  Well now for the good bit- the beer there are about 8 of Mac’s finest on tap, we will talk about them in more detail in coming weeks, but  some of the line-up included Macs Gold All Malt Lager, Mac’s Sassy Red, which was delicious, Black Mac, and our favourite Mac’s Great White which was an awesome wheat beer, just to name a few. Mac’s also has some of their great ciders on tap including Isaacs’ which is a must and their food was pretty good too.  Auckland isn’t the only place to have one of these great Brewbars, in fact there are five in the city, there are also bars in Christchurch, Nelson and Wellington.

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About half an hour’s drive out of Auckland along State Highway no 16 is the lovely rural area of Riverhead. The area has plenty of farmland, vineyards and fruit producers.  We came across a great little brewbar and restaurant which had an incredible range of quality beers called Hallertau.  They produced beers using the traditional artisan processes with nothing other than water, yeast, hops and barley and rainwater. The brewers produce four regular beers and a range of seasonable brews, we were lucky enough to try a few of them including the Copper Tart or No 3 beer which as the name suggests is a red ale with a very tasty caramel and chocolaty taste. Delicious. Their Statesman Beer or No 2 was a very rich pale ale which had a fairly bitey hops kick. They also did a nice Kolsch style beer called Luxe or No 1 which had some delightful fruity aromas and aftertastes and plenty of character. The venue had great food, there was a as they called it grazing menu in the bar area with a range of tasty treats and more of a restaurant style menu in the main part of the complex.  The beer has been recognised by many leading critics in New Zealand and due to the small quantities produced is pretty hard to get outside the brewery but several places around Auckland are stocking it as a boutique craft brew.

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We had a wonderful afternoon visiting the Tui brewery and headquarters in Mangatainoka New Zealand, which is a short drive from Palmerston North on the North Island. What an awesome little set up the guys have, it is fantastic.  Set amongst farmland the historic Tui tower can be seen for miles so there’s no problem finding it.  There’s an amazing welcoming centre complete with bar and giftshop, plenty of outdoor seating and a huge expanse of grass to enjoy a beer or meal. The bar features some pretty interesting drops of beer too, not only do they serve the Tui we have come to love on our Beer tour of New Zealand but they also stock a couple of beers not sold anywhere else- so it’s pretty special.  Tui offer tours of the brewery which is amazing, seeing how they produce beer from the freshest of ingredients. The friendly staff not only show you behind the scenes of the brewing process they end the tour as all good tours should end finishes with a taste of their tasty brews you even get to take home a Tui glass- how good is that!

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May at Hoppsy is New Zealand Beer month and the first of our beer stories from the land of the great long cloud is Speight’s Summit Golden Ale.  This 4% alcohol lager was first brewed back in June of 2008 and is the brewer’s first all natural beer. Speight’s use only natural ingredients including lovely Pacific Hallertau Hops from Nelson which is added late in the brew to the kettle, delicious malted barleys and crystal clear New Zealand water to produce a pretty tasty beer. It is a fairly light beer in comparison to the mainstream Speight’s Gold Medal but has a wonderful fruity flavour with some floral aromatics. The beer like many New Zealand beers has a sweet and smooth taste.   Speight’s part of the Lion Nathan suite of brands has been marketing this beer as a smooth flavoured golden larger that embodies the spirit of the modern Southern Man and is aiming at younger and more active customer, who might purchase a imported product instead of the traditional beers.

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Unfortunatly this beer might be a bit hard to get now as it was a seasonal release, we have only got around to tasting it and it was really worth the wait.  Monteith’s is one of New Zealand’s major brewers and make some beautiful seasonal beers. Their ginger tasting summer ale was one of our favourites last summer. This winter ale follows the German traditions with its full roasted malted flavour, just the amazing red colour is enough to tell you how good it is, it nearly looks like wine.    Beers like this were produced in Germany for winter to nourish people during the fasting season and nourish it certainly does. It’s not a beer you could drink dozen after dozen it is a beer to be enjoyed like a fine port and goes splendid with rich food like roasts or tasty deserts.  You might struggle finding the 2010 release, but we are heading into the time of year when they might just make another for 2011.  Cant wait!

Monteiths Zezty Radller Bier is another one of the tasty beers with a touch of citrus added. This time lemon. It is a high quality beer based on the Bavarian lager. The beer is rather refreshing and it is hard to stop at just one. Monteiths is one of New Zealand’s best brewers dating back to 1868, they have a whole range of classic beers which are well worth trying including an original ale, golden lager, a black and a Celtic red. Some are seasonal so keep an eye out for them, you wont be dissapointed.

Vailima is a small mountain village in Samoa which is a lovely island country in the South Pacific a bit north of New Zealand and home of Vailima Draught. Now a Fosters Group company. The name Vailima comes from a local legend meaning Water in the Hand, the story goes that a couple was crossing Upolu which is an island over the mountains and the man was dying of thirst. The woman used the palms of her hands to fetch him some water to save him from dying. Anyway back to the beer, the Samoa Breweries Limited began operations only in 1978 it was a joint venture between a German beer company Haase Braurei and the Government, they bottled San Miguel for a while and now brew the Coca Cola soft drink range and EKU Bavaria under license. The Vailima beer in fact is a German Style larger which is a very refreshing taste in this beautiful piece of south Pacific paradise. Read the rest of this entry »